Plug&ProbeBlue Plug & Probe Blue (Quartz Crystal / 1050 ° C)

The Plug & Probe is a new designed test station for thin films and pellets. It is available in three different materials: 1. Glass (Plug&ProbeGreen) 2. Quartz glass (Plug&ProbeBlue) and 3. Alumina (Plug&ProbeOrange). These three test stations are physically identical. Only the materials and its properties of the interior e.g. maximal temperature or oxygen exchange are different.

Such test stations are used for PLD thin films on 10 ×10 mm substrate samples and for pressed ceramic pellets. The main goal during construction for this test stations was that they are super easy to use and easy to maintain.

The Plug & Probe Blue is designed to provide a tool to perform easy electrical measurements on pellets or thin film samples at elevated temperatures and changing gas environments.

Made from fused quartz, up to 1050 °C

The Plug & Probe Blue consists of a metal flange in a blue cover and a removable quartz glass test rod with an interior quartz glass test interface using platinum wiring. All parts are spring mounted to prevent breaking and ensures a stable electrical contact between the electrodes and the specimen. The heated part of the Plug&Probe Blue only consist of quartz glass and platinum to ensure no outgassing and to prevent any reactions between specimen and sample holder. In case you cannot use platinum in your experiment, you may want to change to another test station with different contact materials.

Open circuit impedance measured at room temperature gives ca. 1 · 1013 Ω and ca. 1 · 10-12 F for the resistive and the capacitive part respectively. The inductive part in the impedance spectra, if visible, generally depends on the connected measurement BNC cables between the impedance analyzer and the Plug & Probe.